C-bomb? You be the judge

One important question was engrossing social media on Thursday: did Bill Shorten get called a "grub" or a "c---?"

Viewers will have to make up their own minds after watching, and perhaps pausing and rewinding, footage of Question Time from Wednesday afternoon, when Education Minister Christopher Pyne was captured on camera hurling a four-letter insult at the Opposition Leader.

In the footage, Mr Pyne is shown at the dispatch box delivering a tirade at Mr Shorten.

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"If the 'number one whinger in Australia' was a reality TV show, Madame Speaker, there'd be no point in any other contestant entering it, because if Bill Shorten entered it, he would win it," Mr Pyne says.

His speech is interrupted by yells from Tony Burke, the Manager of Opposition Business.

Mr Pyne pauses, before he can be heard saying: "You're such a ..." The last word in his sentence is difficult to hear.

Some observers were quick to deliver their verdict on Twitter, saying Mr Pyne had definitely dropped the C-bomb in Parliament.

But when approached for comment, Mr Pyne's office was adamant that My Pyne had said "grub".

Mr Shorten's office also said that he did not recall being called the c-word.

At the time, Speaker Bronwyn Bishop responded to Mr Pyne: "The minister will refer to people by their correct name."

Even if Mr Pyne did say only "grub", he should consider himself lucky not to be kicked out for his language, as happened to former prime minister Julia Gillard in 2006.

Ms Gillard, the then opposition health spokeswoman, was thrown out of Parliament for 24 hours for calling Tony Abbott a "snivelling grub".

"I move that that snivelling grub over there be not further heard,'' she said at the time, interrupting the future Prime Minister's speech on laws changing private health insurance.

Ms Gillard then withdrew her comment - "If I have offended grubs, I withdraw unconditionally'' - but that did not satisfy the speaker of the house, David Hawker, who named her for defying his request for an unconditional backdown.